[Ips-aurora-alert] Aurora Watch

[rwc at ips.gov.au]

SUBJ: IPS AURORA WATCH
ISSUED AT 0043 UT ON 21 Aug 2013 BY IPS RADIO AND SPACE SERVICES
FROM THE AUSTRALIAN SPACE FORECAST CENTRE

A coronal mass ejection from a solar filament eruption was observed on
the 20th of August and is expected to strike the Earth midway through
the day on the 23rd of August UT (around midnight or early morning on
the 24th of August AEST). The CME was directed mostly to the south, so
this will be a glancing blow at best. However, recent CMEs of solar
filament origin have been more effective at producing Auroras than
might be expected from coronagraph images alone, due to the magnetic
field structures within the ejected plasma behaving differently to
flare produced CMEs and being more favourable for producing Aurora.

Significant uncertainties in the analysis of this event remain, so
Aurora watchers are advised to follow the progress of this event at
http://www.ips.gov.au/.

Aurora alerts will be sent should favourable space weather activity
eventuate.

Australian Space Forecast Centre
IPS Radio and Space Services
Bureau of Meteorology

P: +61 2 9213 8010
E: asfc at ips.gov.au